Jakarta – As investors sell Indonesian stocks and dump the rupiah in response to concerns that the extraordinary power grab in the legislature by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto will hobble President-elect Joko Widodo's reform agenda – opposition politicians say they have the country's best interests at heart.
"There's no need to worry about politics in the House of Representatives," Viva Yoga Mauladi, a senior official with the National Mandate Party (PAN) told news magazine Tempo on Friday. "If something is in the best interests of the people, of course we will do it."
Viva said that fears the Red-and-White coalition would try and sabotage Joko's presidency purely for the pursuit of power were as baseless as they were unfair. He emphasized that Red-and-White lawmakers had been elected by the people and had a mandate to govern on their chosen platform.
Hidayat Nur Wahid, a senior figure in the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the coalition wanted to provide a transparent system of checks and balances, not a stubborn obstruction to a progressive agenda.
Critics have, however, pointed to politicians riding rough-shod over the will of people in a transparent effort at politicking. Around 80 percent of Indonesians wanted to keep direct elections for regional government chiefs but the House of Representatives went ahead and abolished local elections in a transparent affront to democracy.
"Taking away the people's right to choose their leaders is a blatant betrayal of public trust and sidelines them from the democratic process altogether, rendering all the progress and costs of the last 10 years futile," this newspaper's editorial read on Sep. 26.
Red-and-White acolytes continue nonetheless to brief journalists that they are contributing to the careful fermentation of Indonesian democracy, rather than vandalizing its most important institutions.
"To be able to provide a proper check and balance to the executive – we need an equally powerful force so that Joko's mental revolution can run effectively," the PKS' Hidayat said.
Jokowi outmaneuvered
Prabowo, who many at home and abroad feel embarrassed both himself and the country in a rambling interview on the BBC in which he refused to concede defeat to the winner of the presidential election, has kept a relatively low profile in recent weeks – focusing on riding out at his polo club and attending a handful of other public events. He has, however, managed to retain control of a six-party coalition that many felt would have disintegrated by now.
Analysts expected several deck hands to jump ship to Joko's PDI-P-led coalition. Golkar, a party that has never been in opposition, was widely expected to have deserted Prabowo and moved over to the Joko camp by now.
Instead, the election of Setya Novanto as the new speaker of the DPR indicates that Prabowo has successfully stamped his control on the House.
In addition to placing Setya in the speaker's chair, Prabowo has also parachuted his outspoken friend and Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) colleague Fadli Zon into a deputy speaker role, as well as Agus Hermanto from the Democratic Party, Taufik Kurniawan of PAN and Fahri Hamzah of the PKS.
Now Prabowo has his eye on consolidating the House's commissions and supporting boards. There are 11 commissions, which provide oversight of mandatory and other spending of specific sectors. There are a further six supporting boards.
"The commissions and the supporting boards might also be taken over by the Red-and-White Coalition," Golkar lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said on Friday.
Golkar itself wants to lead three commissions and one board. It is targeting Commission II overseeing domestic affairs, regional autonomy and elections; Commission III overseeing law, human rights and security; Commission V overseeing transportation, public works, and underdeveloped regions; Commission VI overseeing trade, industry, and state-owned enterprises; and Commission VII overseeing energy, mineral resources, and environment.
"The main point is: we want to lead three commissions and one supporting board," Bambang said.
For the leadership seats in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the politician said that the coalition has decided the allocation for each party.
"The coalition is ready to take back the top seats in the MPR," Bambang said. "The speaker will be from the Democratic Party, and the deputy speakers will be from Golkar, PAN, PKS and the PPP [United Development Party]. Gerindra has decided to give its place to the PPP."
An unnamed source said the Democratic Party had been given the speaker position as a reward for them sticking by Prabowo. The election of the MPR speaker and deputy speakers will take place on Monday.
Investors were pessimistic on Friday for a reform agenda that counts urgent short-term measures such as fuel-subsidy reform and more slow-burning necessities of corruption eradication and raising productivity.
In mid-morning trading in Jakarta on Friday, the Jakarta Composite Index was trading at 4,937.08 – a three-month low. The rupiah, still licking its wounds from being Asia's worst-performing currency in 2013, was pegged at 12,151 rupiah to the dollar – 1.1 percent worse off than at the beginning of the week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.